Trends of homicides in Galle-Sri Lanka

Introduction:

The intentional killing of a human being by another is the ultimate crime. Its indisputable physical consequences manifested in the form of a dead body also makes it the most categorical and calculable.

Objective:

The objective was to document epidemiological, socio-economic and postmortem data on homicides reported to the Teaching hospital Karapitiya, from 1st of January 2011 to 31st of December 2011 and to compare with the findings of previous studies done in other parts of the country.

Materials and Methods

All the potential homicide cases referred to the Teaching hospital, Karapitiya during the study period were retrospectively analyzed.

Results:

Out of the 40 homicides, 34 were men (85%). The majority (62.5%) of those was in the 21-40 age group. Most cases were (20%) reported from the Meetiyagoda police area. Sharp force was the commonest method (45%) used, followed by firearm (30%) and blunt force (25%). Knife was the commonest sharp weapon used (50%) and chest was the commonest site injured(88%). In fire arm deaths, commonest type of weapon was the rifled fire arm (84%) and chest remains the commonest site of injury. In blunt force trauma, head and face remains the frequently targeted site (100%).

Conclusions

Majority were young married males belonging to lower socio-economic group. In sharp force trauma and firearm homicides, the commonest target was chest whereas in blunt force trauma, the commonest target was the head. Sharp cutting weapons have become more popular. Meetiyagoda, Karandeniya and Elpitiya have more homicides.